Spreadsheets are valuable tools for communicating data, status, decisions, and other information. Reducing long and complex calculations or messages into something that is simple, pleasant to look at, and visually engaging is important to help organizations and users understand the information and internalize it in a way that is actionable. While it may be common to show the outcome in a simple and engaging presentation, the supporting data is rarely given the same treatment. Unfortunately, it is often important to present the supporting data to explain how the data was used to reach the outcome, to teach how the spreadsheet works, and/or to provide confidence in the correctness of the outcome.
Many spreadsheets are very complex, fragile, and can be difficult, if not impossible, to understand for anyone but the creator. For this reason, a consumer can have difficulty trusting a spreadsheet unless the author is there to explain the spreadsheet and provide assurance that the data or calculations are correct. It is also common for a consumer working with a spreadsheet created by someone else to have difficulty altering the spreadsheet in order to see how the outcome might differ based on changes in a few variables. One problem for the consumer is knowing which portions of the spreadsheet can be modified without making the results untrustworthy. This magnitude of this problem is often linked to the complexity of the spreadsheet, but can occur even with what appears to be a relatively simple spreadsheet. For example, the creator of a spreadsheet providing a simple mortgage calculator would be aware that the interest rate must change when the loan amount exceeds a certain value (e.g., $506,000). This requirement is likely to be unknown or overlooked by a consumer who just wants to see the monthly loan payment for a $600,000 loan.
Further, given the size and complexity of many spreadsheets and the fact that data and/or filters on supporting sheets often change the outcomes on the “report” sheets, it is difficult to create a visually engaging spreadsheet. One option is for the spreadsheet creator to spend considerable effort attempting to arrange the supporting data in meaningful and/or visually appealing way and to otherwise make the supporting data beautiful to provide a visually compelling flow or experience for the consumer. Typically, the consumer is simply left to wade through a large amount of data on the supporting sheets. Even if the consumer understands the data, the efforts to create a visually engaging spreadsheet (e.g., formatting and hiding sheets with supporting data) may distract from the overall goal of understanding the decision or takeaway of the report and hinder the ability easily modify variables to test for different possible outcomes or generate new reports.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present invention has been made. Although relatively specific problems have been discussed, it should be understood that the embodiments disclosed herein should not be limited to solving the specific problems identified in the background.